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Jude 1:3-4 ESV
Perverting God’s Grace
There are many people today who are ungodly, who are perverting the grace of God into sensuality, and they are denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Who are they? Many of them are pastors and elders and Bible teachers and evangelists. Some of them are politicians or sports figures or other famous people or people of enormous influence.
And many of them are people just like you and me, just common folk, many of whom are being deceived and who are following lies because they sound like truth, for they are disguised as truth. Or they are following the lies because the lies feed their flesh, and they permit them to continue living in sin and for selfish and lustful desires while still claiming faith in Jesus.
So, how are they doing this? Those who are promoting this are the deceived and they are also deceivers. Many of them are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” disguising themselves as servants of righteousness while they are truly servants of the devil who are out to deceive the naïve and the foolish.
From the Top Down
I also believe that this deception has come from the top down. For, there are evil people in this world in high up positions within the government and within corporations and within the institutional church who have willfully altered the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to deceive and to lead people astray from pure devotion to our Lord Jesus.
And then this is passed down to our religious institutions where future pastors are being trained, and then existing pastors are also going through training in the modern way of doing church via church planting and church growth seminars which are really like business seminars which teach how to market their businesses to the world.
So, in order to market the church to the world, they have been instructed that they must conform to the world, and that they must attract large crowds of people from the world to their gatherings, and thus they must change how they do church, and they must change the message of the gospel to make it more appealing and acceptable to the people of the world.
Sin is like that. Some people make little compromises here and there because they want this or that, and so they make compromises in order to attain what they desire. And this has creeped into the church, largely unnoticed, these little compromises, one at a time, which now have grown into a large major compromise of truth and of righteousness.
The devil is very patient. For he knows if he throws too much at us at once that we will see what he is up to if we are at all discerning. So, he tosses in little lies here and there, and they are mixed in with truth, and they are very subtle, and so they often go by unnoticed. If we are not paying attention, and if we are not discerners of lies and truth, we may not see them.
Lies Disguised as Truth
So, what are the lies that they are telling which they have disguised to look like truth? Well, first off, they have altered the message of the gospel by teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is a one-time event which takes place in our lives which gives us forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life with God, regardless of how we live our lives.
They are teaching or they are implying that we can believe in Jesus Christ, have our sins forgiven, have heaven guaranteed us, but that we don’t have to repent of our sins (turn away from them), and that we don’t have to obey our Lord, and that we don’t have to submit to him as Lord (owner-master) of our lives, for they say that is “works-based salvation” which is wrong.
But the Scriptures teach our salvation as ongoing and as something which won’t be complete until Jesus returns, and that there are conditions we must meet in order for us to receive that salvation and eternal life with God when he does return. For, God’s grace is not free license to continue in sin. His grace delivers us from slavery to sin so we can live righteously.
For, Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us. And he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God so we would now honor God with our lives (1 Pet 2:24; 2 Co 5:15, 21; 1 Co 6:19-20).
We can’t live in self-indulgence, living for the flesh, doing what our selfish will desires, doing what feels good even if it is wrong, living in sin without conscience, following the passions of our flesh and our lustful desires, regardless of consequence, and still have forgiveness of sins and heaven as our eternal destiny (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8).
For, the Scriptures teach that we must forsake our former lives of living for sin and for self, that we must be crucified with Christ in death to sin, that we must be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and that we must now walk (in conduct, in practice) no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit if we want to be saved and to have eternal life.
Broken Cord
An Original Work / August 29, 2018
Your bond is broken
With your Lord and Savior
And, your testimony is
Separate from Him.
Your words not matching
Your actions today.
Repent of your sin and
Bow down and pray.
Live what you testify
In truth always.
Purity’s lacking in
Your life and witness,
For you profess one thing,
But other you do.
Not moral, spiritual.
Still of the flesh.
Not living in truth to
What you confess.
Lying about it
Puts you in a mess.
Living a lie is your practice,
‘tis true of you.
Masquerade righteousness –
None of it true.
Your heart is not given
To your Lord God.
Because of how you live,
You are a fraud.
Turn from your sin and
Give your life to God.
“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Perverting God’s Grace
There are many people today who are ungodly, who are perverting the grace of God into sensuality, and they are denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Who are they? Many of them are pastors and elders and Bible teachers and evangelists. Some of them are politicians or sports figures or other famous people or people of enormous influence.
And many of them are people just like you and me, just common folk, many of whom are being deceived and who are following lies because they sound like truth, for they are disguised as truth. Or they are following the lies because the lies feed their flesh, and they permit them to continue living in sin and for selfish and lustful desires while still claiming faith in Jesus.
So, how are they doing this? Those who are promoting this are the deceived and they are also deceivers. Many of them are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” disguising themselves as servants of righteousness while they are truly servants of the devil who are out to deceive the naïve and the foolish.
From the Top Down
I also believe that this deception has come from the top down. For, there are evil people in this world in high up positions within the government and within corporations and within the institutional church who have willfully altered the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to deceive and to lead people astray from pure devotion to our Lord Jesus.
And then this is passed down to our religious institutions where future pastors are being trained, and then existing pastors are also going through training in the modern way of doing church via church planting and church growth seminars which are really like business seminars which teach how to market their businesses to the world.
So, in order to market the church to the world, they have been instructed that they must conform to the world, and that they must attract large crowds of people from the world to their gatherings, and thus they must change how they do church, and they must change the message of the gospel to make it more appealing and acceptable to the people of the world.
Sin is like that. Some people make little compromises here and there because they want this or that, and so they make compromises in order to attain what they desire. And this has creeped into the church, largely unnoticed, these little compromises, one at a time, which now have grown into a large major compromise of truth and of righteousness.
The devil is very patient. For he knows if he throws too much at us at once that we will see what he is up to if we are at all discerning. So, he tosses in little lies here and there, and they are mixed in with truth, and they are very subtle, and so they often go by unnoticed. If we are not paying attention, and if we are not discerners of lies and truth, we may not see them.
Lies Disguised as Truth
So, what are the lies that they are telling which they have disguised to look like truth? Well, first off, they have altered the message of the gospel by teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is a one-time event which takes place in our lives which gives us forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life with God, regardless of how we live our lives.
They are teaching or they are implying that we can believe in Jesus Christ, have our sins forgiven, have heaven guaranteed us, but that we don’t have to repent of our sins (turn away from them), and that we don’t have to obey our Lord, and that we don’t have to submit to him as Lord (owner-master) of our lives, for they say that is “works-based salvation” which is wrong.
But the Scriptures teach our salvation as ongoing and as something which won’t be complete until Jesus returns, and that there are conditions we must meet in order for us to receive that salvation and eternal life with God when he does return. For, God’s grace is not free license to continue in sin. His grace delivers us from slavery to sin so we can live righteously.
For, Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us. And he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God so we would now honor God with our lives (1 Pet 2:24; 2 Co 5:15, 21; 1 Co 6:19-20).
We can’t live in self-indulgence, living for the flesh, doing what our selfish will desires, doing what feels good even if it is wrong, living in sin without conscience, following the passions of our flesh and our lustful desires, regardless of consequence, and still have forgiveness of sins and heaven as our eternal destiny (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8).
For, the Scriptures teach that we must forsake our former lives of living for sin and for self, that we must be crucified with Christ in death to sin, that we must be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and that we must now walk (in conduct, in practice) no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit if we want to be saved and to have eternal life.
Broken Cord
An Original Work / August 29, 2018
Your bond is broken
With your Lord and Savior
And, your testimony is
Separate from Him.
Your words not matching
Your actions today.
Repent of your sin and
Bow down and pray.
Live what you testify
In truth always.
Purity’s lacking in
Your life and witness,
For you profess one thing,
But other you do.
Not moral, spiritual.
Still of the flesh.
Not living in truth to
What you confess.
Lying about it
Puts you in a mess.
Living a lie is your practice,
‘tis true of you.
Masquerade righteousness –
None of it true.
Your heart is not given
To your Lord God.
Because of how you live,
You are a fraud.
Turn from your sin and
Give your life to God.
